Encyclopedia of Trauma

Trauma is defined as a sudden, potentially deadly experience, often leaving lasting, troubling memories. Traumatology (the study of trauma, its effects, and methods to modify effects) is exploding in terms of published works and expanding in terms of scope. Originally a narrow specialty within emergency medicine, the field now extends to trauma psychology, military psychiatry and behavioral health, post-traumatic stress and stress disorders, trauma social work, disaster mental health, and, most recently, the subfield of history and trauma, with sociohistorical examination of long-term effects and meanings of major traumas experienced by whole communities and nations, both natural (Pompeii, Hurricane Katrina) and man-made (the Holocaust, 9/11). One reason for this expansion involves important scientific breakthroughs in detecting the neurobiology of trauma that is connecting biology with human behavior, which in turn, is applicable to all fields involving human thought and response, including but not limited to psychiatry, medicine and the health sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, the humanities, and law. Researchers within these fields and more can contribute to a universal understanding of immediate and long-term consequences–both good and bad–of trauma, both for individuals and for broader communities and institutions. Trauma encyclopedias published to date all center around psychological trauma and its emotional effects on the individual as a disabling or mental disorder requiring mental health services. This element is vital and has benefited from scientific and professional breakthroughs in theory, research, and applications. Our encyclopedia certainly will cover this central element, but our expanded conceptualization will include the other disciplines and will move beyond the individual.

Charles R. Figley (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is the Paul Henry Kurzweg, MD Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health at Tulane University and a Professor in the Tulane Graduate School of Social Work. He is also director of the award-winning Traumatology Institute. The Institute was recognized in 2000 as the best program of its kind by the University Continuing Education Association. He is a former Fulbright Fellow and was a Professor in the College of Social Work at Florida State University before moving to Tulane University in July 2008. Dr. Figley is also a psychologist and family therapist and was a Professor of Family Therapy and Psychology at Purdue University (1974-1989). He is founding editor of the Journal of Traumatic Stress and currently editor of the journal Traumatology, published by SAGE Publications. Dr. Figley has written more than 200 scholarly works, including 19 books, most of which have focused on stress, resiliency, and coping. His first book, Stress Disorder Among Vietnam Veterans (1978), focused on combat stress and is credited as helping to establish the modern era of traumatology. In his subsequent books, he has continually expanded his focus to other traumatizing contexts.